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National Union Party (United States)
]] ]] The National Union Party was the name used by the Republican Party for the national ticket in the 1864 presidential election, held in the northern states during the Civil War. State Republican parties did not usually change their name.Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. ed. History of U.S. Political Parties: vol II: 1860-1910 (1973) 2:1287 The temporary name was used to attract War Democrats who would not vote for the Republican Party. It nominated incumbent President Abraham Lincoln and former Democrat Andrew Johnson, who were elected in a landslide. Establishment The National Union Party was created in May 1864 during the Civil War. A faction of anti-Lincoln Radical Republicans held the belief that Lincoln was incompetent, and therefore could not be re-elected. A number of Radical Republicans formed a party called the Radical Democracy Party, and a few hundred delegates convened in Cleveland starting on May 31, 1864, eventually nominating John C. Frémont, who had also been the Republicans' first presidential standard-bearer during the 1856 U.S. presidential election. Baltimore convention Republicans loyal to Lincoln created a new name for their party in convention at Baltimore, Maryland during the first week in June 1864, in order to accommodate the War Democrats who supported the war and wished to separate themselves from the Copperheads. This is the main reason why War Democrat Andrew Johnson was selected to be the Vice Presidential nominee; then-current Vice President Hannibal Hamlin was not nominated. The National Unionists supporting the Lincoln-Johnson ticket also hoped that the new party would stress the national character of the war. The convention's temporary chairman, Robert J. Breckinridge of Kentucky, explained that he could support Lincoln on this new ticket because:John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History (1890) 9:66 :As a Union party I will follow you to the ends of the earth, and to the gates of death. But as an Abolition party, as a Republican party, as a Whig party, as a Democratic party, as an American Know-Nothing party, I will not follow you one foot." News of his nomination at the 1864 National Union Convention elicited Lincoln's famous response on June 9, 1864: In August 1864, Lincoln wrote and signed a pledge that, if he should lose the election, he would nonetheless defeat the Confederacy by an all-out military effort before turning over the White House:Mark Grimsley and Brooks D Simpson, eds. The Collapse of the Confederacy (2001) p 80 Lincoln did not show the pledge to his cabinet, but asked them to sign the sealed envelope. Changing mood The complexion of the war changed as the election approached. Confederate Commander Robert E. Lee's last victory in battle occurred June 3, 1864, at Cold Harbor. Union General Ulysses S. Grant's aggressive tactics began to bear fruit that summer. Admiral David Farragut successfully shut down Mobile Bay as a Confederate resource in the Battle of Mobile Bay, August 3-23, 1864. Confederate General John Bell Hood surrendered Atlanta, Georgia, on September 1, 1864, to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. The occupation of the city boosted both the Northern spirit and the Lincoln campaign. Frémont withdraws Frémont and his fellow Republicans hated their former ally, U.S. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair. Frémont, aware that his candidacy could result in victory for the Democrats, made a deal to drop out of the presidential race in exchange for Blair's removal from office. On September 22, 1864, Frémont dropped out of the race. On September 23, Lincoln asked for, and received, Blair's resignation. The National Union ticket went on to win handily in the election of 1864, defeating the Democratic ticket of General George B. McClellan, whom Lincoln had previously relieved of his command, and George H. Pendleton. Election In the 1864 Congressional Elections, the National Union Party won 42 Senate seats, and 149 seats in the House of Representatives. Post-Lincoln Upon Lincoln's death in 1865, Andrew Johnson became the only other National Union President. After the bitter break with the Republicans in Congress over Reconstruction policies, Johnson used federal patronage to build up a party of loyalists, but it proved to be unsuccessful.Foner (2002). Johnson's friends sponsored the 1866 National Union Convention in August 1866 in Philadelphia as part of his attempt at maintaining a coalition of supporters. The convention sought to bring together moderate and conservative Republicans and defecting Democrats and forge an unbeatable coalition behind President Andrew Johnson and his Reconstruction policy.Thomas Wagstaff, "The Arm-In-Arm Convention," Civil War History; 1968 14(2): 101-119 In the fall of 1866 and Johnson embarked upon a speaking tour (known as the "Swing Around the Circle") before the 1866 Congressional elections to attempt to garner support for his policies. His swing was heavily ridiculed and proved ineffective as more of his opponents were elected. Republican National Committee chairman Henry Jarvis Raymond (1864-1866) lost the regard of the Republicans for his participation in the convention. The National Union movement became little more than the Democratic Party in a new form as Republicans left the movement and returned to the old party fold by the fall. The last congressman to represent the National Union Party ended his affiliation with the party in March 1867. Andrew Johnson was impeached by the Republican-led House of Representatives in 1868, and he was acquitted in the United States Senate by one vote. Upon the 1869 expiration of Johnson's only term as U.S. President, the National Union Party came to an end. The platform adopted at the 1868 Republican National Convention strongly repudiated President Johnson,Republican Party Platform of 1868 while the platform adopted by the 1868 Democratic National Convention thanked Johnson,Democratic Party Platform of 1868 but did not nominate him. Meanwhile the mainline Republicans decided at their 1868 national convention to use the term the "National Union Republican Convention." In 1872, all reference to "Union" had disappeared.Schlesinger, 2:1287 Historians regard the initial National Union coalition assembled in 1864 as part of the Republican Party lineage and heritage. the standard multivolume history includes it with the Republican Party and does not give it a separate entry. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. ed. History of U.S. Political Parties: vol II: 1860-1910 (1973) Later uses John Anderson garnered 6.6% of the popular vote in 1980 running on the "National Unity Party" ballot line. Anderson, a former Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, came in third behind Ronald Reagan and the Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter. See also *History of the United States Republican Party *History of the United States Democratic Party *National Union Convention Notes References * Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (2002). * McLaughlin, Andrew Cunningham. and Albert Bushnell Hart, eds. Cyclopedia of American government, Volume 3 pp 593-94 * McKitrick, Eric. Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1960) * Nicolay, John G. and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History (1890) vol 9 ch 3, 15, 16. * McSeveney, Samuel T. "Re-Electing Lincoln: The Union Party Campaign and the Military Vote in Connecticut," Civil War History 1986 32(2): 139-158 * Zornow, William Frank. Lincoln and the Party Divided (1954) Category:American Civil War political groups Category:Political parties established in 1864 Category:Defunct political parties in the United States ca:Partit de la Unió Nacional dels Estats Units cs:Strana národní unie (USA) da:National Union Party (USA) nl:Union Party no:National Union Party pt:Partido de União Nacional (Estados Unidos) sv:National Union Party